How popular is the baby name Karen in the United States right now? How popular was it historically? Use the popularity graph and data table below to find out! Plus, see all the blog posts that mention the name Karen.

The graph will take a few moments to load. (Don't worry, it shouldn't take 9 months!) If it's taking too long, try reloading the page.


Popularity of the baby name Karen


Posts that mention the name Karen

Anne Rice’s birth name was Howard

American author Anne Rice
Anne Rice

Did you know that author Anne Rice was born with the name Howard Allen O’Brien?

The vampire novelist (and creator of Lestat!) was born in New Orleans in 1941 to Howard and Katherine O’Brien. She was the second of four daughters.

Her three sisters were given traditionally female names — Alice, Tamara, and Karen — but she was named Howard, after her father (who went by Mike most of the time, ironically). Her middle name, Allen, was her mother’s maiden name.

Apparently she went by both names together when she was very young. Anne said in a recent interview that she “was Howard Allen, it was a double name” [vid].

She disliked having a male name, though, so in the first grade she started calling herself “Anne.” Eventually her name was legally changed to Anne O’Brien.

P.S. Similarly, Ann Dunham (Barack Obama’s mother) was born with the name “Stanley.”

Source: Ramsland, Katherine. Anne Rice Reader. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.
Image: Anne Rice

Where did the baby name Karil come from in 1958?

I’ve been trying to piece together the stories behind the baby names Karil and Caril lately. Both of them saw increased usage in 1958:

Girls named KarilGirls named Caril
19608.
1959157
195819*10
1957..
1956..
*Debut

The similar names Carol and Karen were popular in the late ’50s, but I think something more specific would have caused both Karil and Caril to pop up all of a sudden like that.

Right now I have two working theories, and both involve murder (how uplifting!).

The first theory is Caril Ann Fugate, the 14-year-old from Nebraska who went on a killing spree with her boyfriend, 19-year-old Charles Starkweather, in January of 1958. The story stayed in the news for months: Starkweather was sentenced to death in May, Fugate received a life sentence in November, and Starkweather’s execution took place in mid-1959.

The second theory is Karil Graham, a Los Angeles woman who was murdered in ’55 and whose story was recounted (with a lot of embellishment) in the 1958 nonfiction book The Badge by Jack Webb, the creator of Dragnet. In late 1958, many newspapers ran Jim Bishop’s positive review of the book, which included the following excerpt highlighting Karil:

The way it is with so many women who live alone, life had held back on Karil Graham. She was likable and attractive, still a year on the sunny side of 40, sandy-haired, blue-eyed, trim-figured. But there was no husband — a marriage hadn’t worked out — no children, no other man in her lonely life.

Karil hid the hurt and filled the emptiness as best she could. Every day she went to work, on time, to her job as receptionist at a downtown Los Angeles art school. Nights, in her quiet apartment, she listened to music and dabbled in painting. She was just a dilettante, she knew resignedly, but records and easel were gracious cover-ups for emptiness.

Do either of these theories seem like the primary answer to you? Do you think the answer could be a bit of both? Or something else entirely…?

Sources:

Round-up of multiples from 1944

Badgett quadruplets, born Galveston, Texas, in 1939
Jeraldine, Joan, Jean, and Janet Badgett

Oodles of multiples — eight sets of twins, one set of triplets, six sets of quadruplets, and one set of quintuplets — were featured in an early 1944 issue of LIFE magazine. Most of these multiples had been born in the 1920s and 1930s.

Curious about the names? I knew you would be! Here they are, along with ages and other details.

Twins:

  • Marjorie and Mary Vaughan, 19.
  • Lois and Lucille Barnes, 21.
  • Betty and Lenore Wade, early 20s.
  • Robert “Bobby” and William “Billy” Mauch, 22.
    • They had starred in the 1937 movie The Prince and the Pauper.
  • Blaine and Wayne Rideout, 27.
    • They had been track stars at the University of North Texas in the late 1930s along with another set of twins, Elmer and Delmer Brown.
  • Charles and Horace Hildreth, 41.
    • Horace was elected Governor of Maine later the same year.
  • Ivan and Malvin Albright, 47.
  • Auguste and Jean Piccard, 60.
    • “Honors as the world’s most distinguished pair of twins must go to Jean and Auguste Piccard, stratosphere balloonists, who are so identical that not everyone realizes there are two of them.”

Triplets:

  • Diane Carol, Elizabeth Ann, and Karen Lynn Quist, 11 months.

Quadruplets:

  • Claire (boy), Cleo (boy), Clayton (boy), and Connie (girl) Brown, 3.
  • Janet, Jean, Jeraldine, and Joan Badgett, 5.
    • “The customary alliteration in multiple names accounts for the “J” in Jeraldine.”
  • Felix (boy), Ferdinand (boy), Frances (girl), and Frank (boy) Kasper, 7.
  • James (boy), Jay (boy), Jean (girl), and Joan (girl) Schense, 13.
  • Edna, Wilma, Sarah, and Helen Morlok — the Morlok Quads — 13.
  • Anthony, Bernard, Carl, and Donald Perricone, 14.
    • “Their Beaumont neighbors call them “A,” “B,” “C” and “D” for short.”

Quintuplets:

  • Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie, and Yvonne Dionne — the Dionne Quints — 9.

Which of these sets of names do you like best? Why?

Source: “Twins: Accident of Their Birth Sets Them Apart from Other People.” Life 6 Mar. 1944: 91-99.
Image: © 1944 Life

Delayed celebrity baby name debuts

Raquel Welch and daughter Tahnee in Ladies' Home Journal (Nov. 1967)
Raquel Welch and Tahnee (in 1967)

Last week we looked at celebrity baby name debuts. These typically occur the same year or the year after a celebrity baby is born (or adopted).

Sometimes, though, there’s a gap of several years. This typically means that the birth/adoption didn’t draw much attention to the name, but some subsequent media event did.

Here are the four earliest examples of “delayed” celebrity baby name debuts that I know of, plus the stories behind what caused them.

Tahnee

In December of 1961, actress Raquel Welch had a baby girl. The baby was legally named Latanne Rene, but her nickname was Tahnee.

But the name Tahnee didn’t debut in the U.S. baby name data until 1967, when Tahnee was 6 years old:

  • 1969: 15 baby girls named Tahnee
  • 1968: 28 baby girls named Tahnee
  • 1967: 17 baby girls named Tahnee [debut]
  • 1966: unlisted
  • 1965: unlisted

Why? Because that’s the year Tahnee and her mother were featured in an issue Ladies’ Home Journal.

Tahnee went on to become an actress, like her mother. The usage of the baby name Tahnee peaked in 1985, the year Tahnee Welch played an alien named Kitty in the summer blockbuster Cocoon.

(Her legal name, Latanne, has never appeared in the data.)

Shangaleza

In October of 1969, major league baseball player Dock Ellis welcomed a baby girl named Shangaleza.

But the name Shangaleza didn’t debut until 1971:

  • 1973: unlisted
  • 1972: unlisted
  • 1971: 5 baby girls named Shangaleza [debut]
  • 1970: unlisted
  • 1969: unlisted

That’s the year Sports Illustrated highlighted her name in the second paragraph of a cover story about the Pittsburgh Pirates:

Dock Ellis, the hottest-talking, hottest winning pitcher in the National League, explained that his one-year-old daughter’s name, Shangaleza Talwanga, meant “everything black is beautiful” in Swahili.

The Pirates went on to win the World Series a couple of months later, but the name Shangaleza never reappeared in the data, making it a one-hit wonder.

Robert Plant and son Karac Pendra Plant (mid-1970s)
Robert Plant and Karac

Karac

In April of 1972, musician Robert Plant had a baby boy named Karac Pendra. “Karac” was inspired by Caractacus, the name of a first-century British chieftain.

But the name Karac didn’t debut until 1979:

  • 1981: unlisted
  • 1980: unlisted
  • 1979: 6 baby boys named Karac [debut]
  • 1978: unlisted
  • 1977: unlisted

Sadly, Karac died of a stomach infection in 1977 while Led Zeppelin was on tour in North America.

In 1979, Led Zeppelin released the album In Through the Out Door, which included a tribute to Karac called “All My Love.” At least one high-profile magazine, People, mentioned Karac in its write-up of the album. My guess is that this and other press mentions are what caused the baby name to debut in ’79.

(For the record, several U.S. babies named Karac before 1979. And I found one born in London in 1977 named “Zeppelin Karac.”)

MC Hammer and daughter Akeiba Burrell on the cover of Jet (May, 1992)
Hammer and A’keiba (in 1992)

A’keiba

In September of 1987, musician M.C. Hammer welcomed a baby girl named A’Keiba Monique.

But the name Akeiba didn’t debut until 1992, when A’keiba was four years old:

  • 1994: 5 baby girls named Akeiba
  • 1993: 6 baby girls named Akeiba
  • 1992: 49 baby girls named Akeiba [debut]
  • 1991: unlisted
  • 1990: unlisted

M.C. Hammer wasn’t famous in 1987. (“U Can’t Touch This” didn’t become a hit until 1990.) So A’Keiba’s birth couldn’t have affected the baby name charts that early.

But why did it suddenly hit in 1992?

Because A’keiba was in the spotlight several times that year.

Various publications ran a photo of A’keiba and her father attending the American Music Awards together in January, for instance, and Jet put Hammer and A’keiba (and her name, sans apostrophe) on the cover in May.

Delayed celebrity baby name debuts still occur these days, though less often — at least relative to the sheer number of celebrity baby name debuts that we now see on the charts.

The best internet-era example I can think of is Kailand, son of Stevie Wonder and fashion designer Kai Milla (Karen Millard-Morris). He was born in 2001, but his name didn’t debut until 2005 — the year he started showing up at fashion shows (one in February, another in December) with his parents.

Can you think of any other celebrity baby names didn’t debut on time?

Sources:

[Latest update: July 2023]